We had 3 days of battle drills with MI. All in all, despite what you read over and over, ACU UCP did a sound job of breaking up the human shape making soldiers hard to see.
ACU UCP has some really interesting qualities as well. Up close, it seems to glow nearly bright gray. However at around 25 meters it looks green. At 50+ meters it looks dark gray/green with Soldiers being pretty indiscernible when mixed in with Utah terrain.
I took a few pics to show what I was seeing (Black out people and faces are for a reason). Now I need some Multicam ACU’s to see how they compare to UCP in the same conditions.
Not bad at all. I think we need to standardize all service’s to one particular uniform. But we need to have more than one option based on combat location. Uniforms are not one type fits all terrain conditions. But like I said, the entire armed services needs to have the same platform, this will aid in preventing fratricide. When you have three different uniforms for U.S. ground forces, then you throw a uniformed enemy into the mix, you can “problems” to rear its ugly head.
I guess I’d like to see a comparison. ACU is better than hunter safety orange, that’s for sure, but is it better than other commonly available options? How much better/worse is it?
Agreed. Although ACUs do work in a very limited spectrum, there are and were at the time of selection, far better alternatives applicable to a wider range of environments, including the BDUs. IIRC, the major factor in selection was the over all cost and “settling” for the ACU by hand puppet SGMs with very little down range time.
I hate to be a negative vibe merchant but I’m underwhelmed . I think that they reflect way too much light and are too near monochromatic and to me eye they don’t a good enough job breaking up the human outline.
We went out and played some paintball for my buddy’s bachelor party last year and his acu’s weren’t that bad actually, they weren’t as good as my never starched woodlands but not all that bad.
All gone on deployment. Only M4’s left behind are with SF. Everyone else trains with A2’s, and get M4’s after they get to FT. Lewis. Or so I have been told
Sad but true.
On the upside, 60% of our sidearms are P228/M11’s. The M9’s are in the armory are in super rough shape, and look like they have been around for 20 years. Some of the M11’s were brand spanking new with factory tags on them.
It’s not bad camo if the Threshold to surpass is “less noticeable than a turd floating in a punch bow,” and the Objective is “not quite the right color, oh well soldiers are cheap shrug.”
Not totally on topic, but I think camo will eventually go from standard patterns to on-the-fly inkjet type printed fabric that will be tailored to the exact environment. I could see it going as far as using imagery to ‘print’ the exact replacement for a specific spot for a something like a hide.
You give the military waaay too much credit. Look how long it took to get suede boots, and ditch the idiotic starch and polish culture.
You can still catch the occasional NCO get the shakes when he sees dirty boots.
And ACU UCP’s ineffectiveness has been greatly exaggerated. I was thinking about getting a Multicam 3-day pack which would allow easy comparo pics, but instead I am getting everything in Coyote that isnt my ACU or boots, that way my gear will be applicable to whatever camo I wear. The Marines were very smart to do something similar.
